The Unholy Night

Chapter XVIII

"Worms come out of the woodwork, leeches crawl from out of the dirt, rats come out of the holes they call home, I fall apart. And the snakes start to sing." 

 - And the Snakes Start to Sing  by Bring Me The Horizon

Mina was tired and angry. She'd just been to see Lucy, who she hadn't seen in ages, and now she was about to be left in the dark that concerned her almost as much as anyone else! More than those men, at least. She was surrounded by vampires at the moment.

And now she was sitting up in bed, anxious and angry, because, tired as she was, she had no motivation to sleep. 

She'd been crying frequently these days, and now here she was, tears leaking from her eyes yet again. She couldn't put her finger on why, but she was hiding them from everyone else. She'd be embarrassed in front of the men, more tears were probably the last think Mary needed right now, which excluded Bess as well, and then there was the matter of Jonathan. Oh, Jonathan. He would chastise her, yell at her, remind her she had nothing to be crying about, so why should she be wasting tears that others should be shedding? 

As if her best friend, the only person who had ever really understood, hadn't just passed into practically another reality from her. Jonathan wanted her to be a doll, didn't he. His housekeeper, his plaything. He should've married another girl if that was what he had been looking for. 

Suddenly, a great barking of dogs commenced, and she nearly leapt out of her bed in surprise. After a few minutes, it all quieted down considerably, until it seemed the entire world had fallen into complete silence. 

Mina got up and looked out the window, curious about what could have caused the halting of the noise, but saw nothing but mist creeping across the lawn of the asylum. She sighed and went to go lie back down, but a few minutes later, she got up to look out the window again. The mist had spread and was now climbing up the walls of the building. 

She finally decided that she should just go to sleep, and so she collapsed into her bed and immediately fell into a dream full of fog and red eyes and smoke, haunting her, chasing her, killing her. And then there was Lucy, but she couldn't reach her, and then Lucy became Jonathan, who rushed until he was too close to her, screaming and spitting about something she had done wrong. 

When she woke up the next morning, she felt as if she hadn't rested at all. 

*

The next day was dull as dust. Seward and Van Helsing were off treating Renfield, whom the men had met the night before, and Jonathan was making inquiries about a man named Thomas Snelling, and Bess and Quincy were off doing something I would rather not think about, which left me to leave a note at Carfax, warning Addy and Lucy of an imminent danger that would be sweeping through the area in the wee hours of the next morning. 

Naturally, Mina, Bess, and I would not be permitted to bear witness to this imminent danger to Addy and Lucy, which was a crying shame, because instinct told us that this would be an interesting encounter, no matter what happened. 

But when did a lack of permission ever stop us from doing anything?

"Remind me again why any of us thought this was a good idea?" Bess asked, as we all stood next to an open window, preparing to jump out. 

"Quick, efficient, we probably won't die, just insane enough to work," Mina said briskly. 

I also had my doubts about this plan, which hinged on the fact that vampires, like cats, were supposed to land on their feet. "Then I guess you won't like the fact that you're going first."